Dickinson to pursue tax collection agreements with Airbnb and VRBO; paid STR-audit software deferred

After public comments and staff presentations, the Dickinson City Council authorized staff to pursue voluntary collection agreements (VCAs) with major booking platforms Airbnb and VRBO to collect and remit short-term-rental (STR) taxes on the city's behalf.

Staff explained VCAs provide aggregate tax remittances that can increase collections immediately but do not provide property-level compliance reports. "Those agreements, the two largest platforms, Airbnb and VRBO, will collect the taxes from the homeowners and remit them to us," staff said, adding that the reporting is aggregate and does not show compliance detail. Council discussed the cost of vendor audit platforms; staff recommended deferring a paid historical-audit software purchase (Granicus) to the FY27 budget year and instead pursuing VCAs now to capture revenue while the city evaluates software ROI.

Short-term-rental hosts and long-time city employees spoke during public comment. Michelle Lee, who said she operates an STR and pays taxes, urged better public outreach and said she thought the city could do more without a paid vendor. "They're not really getting it," she said of compliance outreach, arguing marketing and clearer guidance could improve voluntary registration. Another longtime city government employee said many cities manage STRs through code enforcement and questioned whether the city should pay private firms for discovery when code enforcement could handle identification and compliance work.

Council approved a motion authorizing staff to move forward with VCA agreements and to revisit paid vendor options during the FY27 budgeting process. Staff said the Granicus platform offers optional historical-data modules that could help recoup prior years’ revenue but recommended waiting to purchase until the city can evaluate return on investment.